Osteen brings Iowa his 1-on-1 approach

When the preacher Joel Osteen flashes his famous smile at Wells Fargo Arena on Friday, the crowd will get to see the sort of show he puts on every Sunday back home in Texas, where his Lakewood Church has taken over the 16,000-seat arena that used to house the Houston Rockets.

On his first visit to Des Moines, he'll bring the rock band and the gospel singers. He'll bring the jumbo screens. He'll bring his mom and his glamorous wife and their kids, all for what a press release bills as "an exciting time of praise and worship where lives are changed and hope is restored." The so-called Night of Hope promises to show off Osteen's "virtually unmatched" ability "to speak directly to individuals and to connect personally with them."

That's a tall order. How does the pastor of the country's largest congregation connect with each member? How does he tend to individual sheep in the flock?

"I'm always listening," he said over the phone from Houston. "I'll talk with hundreds of people after events. Even if it's just 30 seconds or a minute or two with each person, I hear their stories. I hear their victories. I hear their challenges."

And it's those testimonies that provide material for the televised sermons and best-selling books that have made Osteen (pronounced OH-steen) a very rich man. The original 2004 edition of his first spiritual guide, "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential," sold more than 4 million copies. He signed a reported $13 million advance for the follow-up two years later — more than Bill Clinton's $10 million advance for his "My Life" autobiography.

The spiritual leader who lives in a $10.5 million mansion has heard plenty of criticism about his wealth, but he makes no apologies.

"My whole message is that we're blessed to be a blessing," he said. "We're blessed to help others. God wants you to rise up higher than where you are."

Osteen has certainly done that. The 51-year-old grew up in a crowded house with the five other children of Dolores and the late John Osteen, a former Southern Baptist pastor who founded the nondenominational Lakewood Church. The younger Osteen studied broadcast communications at Oral Roberts University but dropped out to create Lakewood's television program, which broadcast his father's sermons for 17 years.

Joel Osteen declined to preach himself, despite his dad's urging, until one Sunday in early 1999 — a few days before his father died of a heart attack. Osteen became the church's senior pastor later that year and has since built its membership from about 4,000 to 52,000.

He's done so, he said, by sticking to a core message. "God is good," he said. "He's there for you. You need to let go of the past, see each day as a gift, believe that 2014 can be your best year ever."

Joel Osteen, center, with wife Victoria Osteen, followed in his father’s steps and became a preacher, although he refused to do so for many years. His first sermon was given just days before his father died of a heart attack.
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After more than a decade at the pulpit, Osteen has polished that message to a high sheen, delivered in his mild Texas twang. Even on the phone, he tends to string together upbeat catchphrases like the ones that unspool from his popular Twitter account.

He has just 2.75 million followers on the site — measly compared to Katy Perry's 54 million or Barack Obama's 44 million — but few users' tweets are passed along more than his. This week almost 5,000 followers retweeted his note that "being successful doesn't necessarily make you great. Greatness is reaching back and helping somebody else become great."

But some people don't buy it. Even many Christians criticize not only Osteen's wealth but his avoidance of prickly social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and complex questions of sin, suffering and theology. They see him as a motivational speaker merely posing as a man of the cloth.

"I don't pay any thought to that," Osteen said. "From my point of view, 99 percent of what I hear is all 'You helped me change my life.' It's positive."

The spectacular rise and scandalous fall of other megachurch leaders have made people more skeptical, Osteen said. Lakewood Church regularly releases its financial reports to the public, and its pastor focuses on his own work.

"I'm a big believer in running my race and doing what I've been called to do," he said. "I'm good at staying in my lane. I'm not political. I'm not a lot of other things, but I'm good at encouraging people and inspiring people."